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FAREWELL ADDRESS 



OF THE 



PRESIDENT OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE. 



FAREWELL ADDRESS 



TO THE 



STUDENTS OF WASHINGTON COLLEGE, 



DELIVERED IN THE COLLEGE CHAPEL 



ON THE SIXTEENTH OP DECEMBER, 1831, 

BY THE RT. REV. T. C. BROWNELL, D.D. LL.D., 



ON HIS RETIRING 



PRESIDENCY OF THE INSTITUTION. 



HARTFORD: 
H. & F. J. HUNTINGTON. 

PRINTED BY P. CANFIELD. 

1832. 



Xi 









WASHINGTON COLLEGE, Dec. 17th, 1831. 
Rt. Rev. Sir, — 

As a Committee in behalf of the Students of Washington College, we 
express to you ou'" sincere regret that your connexion with us as President 
no longer exists. Under your auspices the Institution originated, and under 
your auspices it has won its way to the esteem and confidence of the com- 
munity. For your active exertions in thus promoting its prosperity, we feel 
the warmest gratitude ; and tlie remembrance of your kindness and affection 
we shall ever cherish with the liveliest sensibility. You have exercised the 
Government of the College with a parental authority, which has not only 
urged us on in the attainment of knowledge, but has excited in us lasting 
sentiments of esteem for your private and official character. With such feel- 
ings, and desirous of retaining your affectionate counsels and kind injunctions, 
we request for publication a copy of your " Farewell Address." 
With sentiments of esteem and affection. Yours, 

E. E. BEARDSLEY, > Committee 
T. S. JUDD, } in behalf of 

J. W. FRENCH, 5 the Students. 



Hartford, Dec. I9th, 1831. 

Gentlemen : 

I have received your communication of the 17th inst., and ara gratified to 
find that my " Farewell Address" to the Students of Washington College 
was so kindly received by them. It was not designed for the press ; but if 
its publication can afford them any satisfaction, I shall not hesitate to comply 
with their request. I beg you to assure them of the continuance of my pa- 
rental solicitude for their success and usefulness in life, and of my best exer- 
tions for the prosperity of the College. 

For the affectionate terms in which you have conveyed to me the senti- 
ments of the Students, be pleased to accept my cordial thanks, and for your- 
selves individually, the assurance of my affectionate regard. 

THOMAS C. BROWNELL. 



To Messrs. E. E. Beardsley, T. S. Judd, 
and J. W. French, Committee in behalf 
of the Students of Washington College. 



ADDRESS. 



Young Gentlemen : 

The time is at hand when I am to retire from the imme- 
diate charge of this Institution. It is an event which I cannot 
contemplate without some emotion. Having made the first 
movements for the estabhshment of the College : — Having been 
engaged, with great solicitude, in all the measures for procuring 
its Charter ; for raising the Funds for its endowment ; for 
framing the laws for its organization and government ; — hav- 
ing presided over the instruction and discipline which has been 
dispensed in it, from its origin to the present time, it is naturally 
to be expected that my feelings should be strongly identified 
with its interests and its prospects. 

These feehngs of general interest, derive pecuhar force from 
the acquaintances I have formed, and the attachments I have 
contracted, with the young men who have passed under my 
charge. About eighty youth have already received the hon- 
ours of the Institution. They have carried forth into the world 
a measure of talents and worth of which its friends may well 
be proud. A little more than a month ago, I had the pleasure 
of meeting thirteen of these young men, at the Theological 
Seminary in New- York ; and I have seldom passed an evening 
with more unalloyed satisfaction than that which I then spent 
in their society. Of the students who remain in the College, I 
cannot be expected to speak, in their presence. Yet I deem it 
but justice to say that, at no time, has the Institution been more 



distinguished by the good order and good conduct of its mem- 
bers. 

But, young Gentlemen, though I cannot leave you without 
some personal regrets, yet I am well convinced that the new 
organization of the Faculty will prove highly auspicious to the 
prosperity of the College. My time and my thoughts have 
been, necessarily, much engrossed by other duties, which have 
but little connexion with its interests ; and nothing but the 
low state of its Funds, and its consequent inability to support a 
President, could have induced me so long to hold an office, the 
duties of which ought to occupy the undivided care of the 
incumbent. By the liberality of the Legislature, and of indi- 
viduals, the funds of the College are now in a somewhat more 
prosperous condition. A President has been elected, who will 
enter on his duties at the beginning of the next Term, and 
who will be enabled to devote his exclusive labours to the pro- 
motion of its interests. His learning and talents qualify him 
well for the station ; and I have full confidence in his zeal for 
the honour of the Institution, and in his devotion to the com- 
fort and improvement of the students. The other members of 
the Faculty possess my entire confidence and respect, as well 
as my affectionate regard. And I consider it highly favourable 
to the interests of the College that, hereafter, all the officers of 
Instruction are to reside within its walls, or in its immediate 
vicinity. In addition to these propitious circumstances, I have 
the satisfaction to know that there has been no period since 
the establishment of the Institution when so many valuable 
young men were preparing for admission to it. 

But notwithstanding my confident expectations of the in- 
creasing prosperity of the College, and notwithstanding the 



opportunities I shall have, as a Trustee, of exerting myself for 
its welfare, I cannot think of dissolving my more immediate 
connexion with it, or my present relation to yourselves, with- 
out the most lively sensibility. — I would fain believe, young 
Gentlemen, that there must be some emotions of a similar 
nature on your part. And that, though I have been unable 
to discharge effectively all the duties of a President, you have 
at least been convinced of my affectionate regards, and of my 
anxiety and zeal for your welfare. Under these impressions 
I have been induced to believe that you would lend a fevoura- 
ble ear to my parting counsels, while you are assembled to re- 
ceive my parting benedictions. And may I not hope that these 
counsels, which are the last you can ever receive from me, will 
sink deep into your hearts, softened, as I trust they are, by the 
present occasion, and which I have ever found ready to welcome 
salutary advice. 

Young Gentlemen ; could I sum up all I have to say, in 
one single precept ; a precept equally suited to your collegiate 
hfe, and to your subsequent intercourse Avith the world ; it 
should be this ; — " Be careful to cultivate, and pre- 
serve, AN unsullied purity OF HEART, AND RECTITUDE 
OF LIFE." 

The respect and esteem of your fellow-men will contribute 
much to your happiness. Your own respect for yourselves, 
founded on integrity of hfe, and a good conscience towards 
God, will be essential to it. The " mens conscia recti^ is the 
fountain and centre of all true happiness ; and this cannot be 
attained and preserved without a strict adherence to the pre- 
cept I have given you. 

But any single precept, for the regulation of your lives, must 



8 

embrace so wide a range of action, that it will be useful to be 
more particular, and to advert to some points of conduct, and 
some situations in life, where you will be most hable to error, 
and most in need of salutary counsel. 

In the first place, then, I would caution you to be careful 

IN CHOOSING YOUR COMPANIONS, AND IN FORMING YOUR 
FRIENDSHIPS. 

The society of the world will be found very different from 
that of your college associates. It will be more diversified, and 
subject to fewer restraints. Now, to young men, like yourselves, 
the society of the gay, the idle, and the dissipated, will pre- 
sent peculia,r allurements. It will open before you a thousand 
avenues of seduction, and the syren voice of pleasure will be 
heard singing deceitfully at the entrance of each. While your 
passions are strong, while you are yet untaught by experience, 
and whUe you are so easily accessible through the frailties of 
your nature, there is danger that those who compose this society 
should exercise an undue influence on your minds, and on 
your conduct. They will greatly surpass you in their know- 
ledge of the world : — a knowledge which is very imposing to 
young men, confined to the retreats of a college, or just issuing 
from them. They will appear to you free from care, free from 
the drudgery of labour, and exempt from any restraints on the 
natural inclinations and desires. They will probably arrogate 
to themselves the exclusive possession of genius, contemn the 
labour of study, and despise the ordinary pursuits of life. They 
will endeavour to allure you to thek society, by all the frailties 
within your own bosoms, and by all the gratifications you can 
be made to fancy they enjoy. — But, my dear pupils, be well 
assured that their pleasures are all hoUow, and heartless, as 



their professions are deceptive and false. Should you cast your 
lot with them, you can expect nothing from their communion 
but disgrace and ruin. You must either avoid them, or be- 
come their victims and their slaves. If you join yourselves to 
their society, you will soon be induced to become partakers in 
their vices and their follies ; otherwise, your reserve will be 
regarded as a reproach on their conduct, which will not be 
endured. You will be charged with want of spirit, or with 
being influenced by some sinister motive. Incapable them- 
selves of acting on high and honourable principles, they will 
throw on you the imputation of being actuated by some super- 
stitious religious terror, or by some selfish desire to acquire the 
favour of a particular portion of the community. 

Under the smart of such imputations, or even under the 
weak apprehension of them, how many wavering youth have 
we seen carried away by the current of dissipation. At first, 
they yield a reluctant consent to conduct of a doul^tful charac- 
ter. Next, they become abettors and actors in scenes which 
they cannot approve. Bye and b)^e, they advance further in 
vice ; and rather than forego the approbation of their compan- 
ions, and incur the charge of motives, which they are conscious 
of being free from, they stifle the reproaches of conscience, and 
plunge deeply in guilt ; and in the end, are ready to commit, 
with greediness, actions which they formerly shunned with 
caution, and regarded with abhorrence. 

I now appeal to your candor : — Do not such young men sac- 
rifice every truly honouralDle, and every manly principle ? Do 
they not absolutely renounce all true independence of cliaracter, 
and become voluntary slaves to the iblly and caprice of their 
companions'? I^ike the poUtical demagogue, they stoop to 



10 

those whom they despise. They associate with those whom 
they cannot respect. They slander those whose worth they 
cannot emulate. They maintain opinions which they disbe- 
lieve, and withhold sentiments which they approve. And to 
complete their degradation, they find themselves compelled to 
pay the most obsequious court to those whom they know to be 
most contemptible, both by their ignorance, and their vices. 

Do not flatter yourselves, young gentlemen, that you can 
associate with such company, without suffering in your repu- 
tation, or without being contaminated in your minds. A man 
will be judged of by the company which he keeps. " Tell me 
whom you live with, and I will tell you what you are," says 
the Spanish proverb. We gradually assume the manners, 
habits, and sentiments of those with whom we associate, and it 
is impossible that we should hold habitual communion with 
the mean and the vile, without being degraded and debased. 

In choosing your companions and friends, then, seek the 
society of the reputable, the wise, and the good. It is indeed 
your duty to cherish kindly sentiments towards all men ; and, 
in your general intercourse with the world, to exercise a cour- 
teous deportment towards all ; but in selecting your circle of 
social intercourse, and in choosing the friends of your bosom, 
your duty, your interest, and your happiness require, that you 
should restrict yom'selves to the intelligent and the virtuous. 

Next to a careful and judicious choice of your friends and 
companions, I would recommend to you habits op indus- 
try, AND A DILIGENT APPLICATION TO YOUR APPROPRIATE 
BUSINESS IN LIFE. 

Industry is congenial to the nature and constitution of man. 
By bodily exercise the physical powers are strengthened and 



11 

invigorated, and by habits of meditation and study the mind is 
enlarged and improved. Even the elements of nature require 
constant action to preserve them in a healthful state. The 
standing pool soon becomes noisome ; and unless the atmos- 
phere is fanned by the breezes, it becomes noxious and impure. 
It is a general law of Providence, therefore, and a law admka- 
bly adapted to the nature of man, that nothing shall be per- 
fected without activity and labour. Who has ever made ad- 
vances in learning and knowledge, without assiduous study 
and contemplation ! All the wealth of the world cannot buy 
the knoAvledge of a single science, or even purchase a single 
idea. And virtue itself, the richest ornament of the soul, the 
noblest endowment of which man is capable, is that which of 
■all others requires the most laborious efforts, both in the acqui- 
sition and the practice. 

Indolence is mean and grovelling, and renders a man's life 
as miserable as it is useless. Who would be an insignificant 
cypher in the world— standing alone, and contributing nothing 
to its value ? Who would be a mere drone in a community — 
adding nothing to its stores, and feeding upon what others 
have gathered ? Who would be a very excrescence on society — 
contributing to it neither ornament nor use, but actually de- 
forming its proportions Avhile deriving nutriment from its sub- 
stance ? None but a base and degenerate mind can be con- 
tent with insignificance. No man can be happy but fiom a 
consciousness of active endeavours in the cause of usefulness 
and of duty. 

Young Gentlemen ; if it shall please God to prolong your 
days, you have much to do in life. After the completion of 
your collegiate course, you have yet much to do in perfecting 



12 

a liberal education. Think not that a young man's education 
is completed when he receives his Diploma, and leaves his Al- 
ma Mater. A collegiate course can be but a mere introduc- 
tion to the several branches of learning which it embraces. The 
graduate is still a tyro in knowledge. If he has ascended the 
steps, he is still in the vestibule of the temple, and has yet to 
penetrate its recesses. 

I do not indeed recommend that you should exhaust your 
powers b}^ boundless excursions through the regions of learning. 
I would have you limit your pursuits to objects not sui-passing 
your grasp, either by their number, or their magnitude. But 
by a judicious appropriation of your time, in the study of your 
professions, and in the avocations to which they lead you, you 
will find much leisure for the successful prosecution of those 
studies which have constituted the business of your collegiate 
life. Such an appropriation of your leisure hours, wUl be equal- 
ly profitable and delightful. It will recreate and refresh the 
mind, while it enlarges and improves it. 

By continuing the study of the Ancient Languages, your 
taste will be refined and improved, and the avenues of know- 
lege will be extended ; and by a familiarity with their gram- 
matical construction, your minds will become habituated to the 
most profound philosophy. The study of Belles Lettres, will 
assist you to express your thoughts with clearness, strength, 
and elegance ; and by enabling you the better to instruct, per- 
suade, and delight your fellow-men, will enhance your influence, 
and extend your usefulness. The perusal of History, will 
enlighten the understanding, and hold out the most lively in- 
centives to virtue. It will supply to you the lessons of experi- 
ence, and furnish you with wisdom and prudence, at the ex- 



13 

pense of your predecessors. Tlie Mathematical Sciences^ will 
supply the mind with useful subjects of speculation, will 
strengthen the reasoning powers, and enable you to make im- 
provements in the arts and business of life. The study of 
Physical Science, the contemplation of the order and harmony 
of the universe, and of those laws which regulate its pheno- 
mena, will elevate the mind above grovelling objects and pur- 
suits, will inspire you with pious affections, and will increase 
your reverence towards the great Creator, whose glory it de- 
clares, and whose eternal divinity it clearly evinces. There is 
no branch of classical learning, and no department of science, 
which will not improve your mind, increase your knowledge, 
and enhance your usefulness. Such portions of time, then, as 
you can redeem from your appropriate occupations and business 
in life, should be zealously devoted to the pursuits of literature 
and science. 

But if your very relaxations from business are to be charac- 
terized by industry, what diligent application should be devo- 
ted to your peculiar pursuits in life. No profession can be 
learned or practiced without study and labour. It is the order 
of Providence that nothing shall succeed of itself The plant 
springs not up unless the seed be sown, and there is no har- 
vest without culture. " Nihil movet 7ion mot^im^'' is a law of 
nature. And so it is in the business of life ; — nothing moves 
without being moved. Whatever design is to be accomplish- 
ed, whatever object is to be effected, it is the economy of divine 
Providence that it shall be originated, conducted, and brought 
to a successful issue, only by enterprize and industry. 

Young Gentlemen ; — I might advert to many other points 
of conduct, in regard to w^hich all youth are liable to error, and 



14 

concerning' which sahitary advice might not be out of place ; 
but the present occasion will not admit of minute detail. I can- 
not, however, forbear one other caution, relating more particu- 
larly to the discipline of your minds and tempers, and the 
regulation of your affections : — it is that y<ou be careful 

TO CULTIVATE A SPIRIT OP CANDOR, AND TO KEEP YOUR 
MINDS FREE FROM ALL PREJUDICES AND PREPOSSESSIONS. 

Men have naturally within them a principle of pride and 
self love, which inclines them to set an inordinate value on what 
relates to themselves, and to depreciate what pertains only to 
others. This propensity is particularly evinced in all the di- 
versities of party spirit. How constantly do you see men 
disposed to justify, or excuse, all the principles and measures of 
the party with which they have connected themselves ; and as 
constantly inclined to condemn, and vilify, all the opinions and 
acts of the opposite party ! Each can see in the other nothing 
that is good or honourable. They mutually ascribe to each 
other the most sinister motives, and the most disingenuous 
conduct. And if we should judge of individuals entu-ely from 
the representations of their opponents, in politics or religion, 
we should hardly expect to find a worthy man upon earth. 
But neither self nor party is the standard of right. You are to 
regard the commands of God, and the good of mankind, as 
paramount to all private or party considerations, and to receive 
them as the only unerring rules of truth and duty. 

That you should be entirely free from every influence and 
bias, except those of truth and justice, supposes, indeed, a 
degree of virtue which we are hardly to expect in this imper- 
fect state. You vvall have your private friendships and your 
local attachments. If you take an active part in the business 



15 

of life, you will have your party interests : and even in your 
religious views, you will be identified with some particular de- 
nomination of Christians. But before you form such attach- 
ments and connexions, I would liave you investigate with 
candor, and be fully satisfied in your own minds. I would 
caution you to beware of supposing that all intelligence and 
virtue are monopolized by yourselves, and those with whom 
you agree, and that all those who dissent from you are, of 
necessity, entirely in the wrong. Especially I would guard 
you against the besetting sin of ascrilnng wicked or unworthy 
motives to all who may differ from you in opinion, and against 
the perversity of temper that wonld lead you to shun their 
society. Though the cause of charity may not be promoted 
by attempts at union, upon principles concerning which there 
is an essential difference of sentiment, yet in all other matters, 
and especially in the ordinary concerns of life, a free and un- 
reserved intercourse contributes, in an eminent degree, to pro- 
mote the spirit of candor, and the harmony of society. It is 
when men are most aUenated from each other, in the common 
intercourse of life, that they are disposed to judge most unchari- 
tably of each other's motives and conduct. — The true principle 
of toleration, and of christian charity, may be found in the 
observance of a rule, which applies in an infinite diversity of 
cases in human life, and which requires that we should " do 
to others, as we would have others do to us." 

But it is not enough that your barely fill up the measure of 
equity, and refrain from injuring your fellow-men. The con- 
dition of man in society, and the laws of God, equally require 
that you should cultivate a spirit of benevolence, and occupy 
yourselves in doing good. You are not only to repress every 



16 

uncandid, irascible and vindictive feeling, and to free your 
minds from the corroding anxieties of jealousy and envy, but 
you are to cultivate a spirit of courtesy, mutual confidence, and 
brotherly kindness. It is not enough that you abstain from 
devising mischief against others, you must not too readily 
imagine any to be contrived against yourselves. What peace 
can he enjoy who lives in continual dissentions, and is harass- 
ed by perpetual suspicions ! How much more pleasant is it to 
sail on smooth and tranquil waters, than to be constantly tossed 
on a tempestuous sea ! How much more delightful to behold 
the face of heaven smiling with serenity, than to see it frown- 
ing with clouds, or raging with storms ! How like a savage 
wUderness the world appears when men are engaged, like wild 
beasts, in harassing and devouring one another ; and how like 
the paradise of God it seems when they are knit together in 
mutual love and concord ! How calm the mind, how serene 
the countenance, and how happy the life of that man, who is 
conscious that he possesses the respect and esteem of the com- 
munity in which he lives, and that he is earnestly and success- 
fully engaged in promoting the peace and welfare of his fellow- 
men ! 

But the regulation of the temper, the cultivation of benevo- 
lent affections, and the ordering of the entire hfe and conduct, 
must be influenced by religious motives, and guided by chris- 
tian principles, or all your efforts to these ends will be vain and 
fruitless. Such is the frailty and corruption of your nature, 
that you will stand in need of all the sanctions which Christiani- 
ty enjoins, and of aU the divine influences which it affords. — 
But you have not now to learn that any system of morals 
which may be framed independently of the christian religion, 



17 

will ever be found hollow, unsubstantial, and inefficacious : — 
nor would this parting moment be the proper time for first re- 
minding you of your christian obligations. Yet fleeting and 
transient as the present moment is, I do seize it, once more 
solemnly to charge you, by all your hopes of happiness, both 
here and hereafter, faithfully to perform all the duties which 
the christian religion enjoins ; and earnestly to embrace, and 
ever hold fast, that way of salvation which it unfolds. And 
" whatsoever things are amiable, whatsoever things are lovely, 
whatsoever things are of good report ; if there be any virtue, 
any knowledge," I charge you to seek and to practice those 
things. 

You will soon go forth from this institution to seek your ap- 
propriate stations in society, and to assume your appropriate 
parts in the business of life. And you are urged by every 
motive and consideration which can actuate the human bosom, 
to pursue an honourable and a virtuous course, to aim at high 
attainments, and to strive after extensive usefulness. Many 
eyes will be turned upon you, and many an anxious wish will 
be breathed for your success. 

Your instructors will not faU to watch your future career in 
life, with intense solicitude. If you perform your parts well, it 
will be to them a source of heart-felt satisfaction : — if you fail, 
it will afford them cause of mortification and regret. You 
cannot possibly sink into insignificance and forgetfulness. 
Wherever you may go, whatever may be your station in socie- 
ty, so long as one of you remains in hfe, he will be remem- 
bered by his Instructors, and by his fellow-students, as a 
graduate of Washington College. 



18 

Young Gentlemen ; let the debt of gratitude which you owe 
to your parents be to you a still higher stimulus to virtuous 
exertion. Remember the sacrifices they have made to secure 
your education, and rear you up for usefulness. Reflect on 
the care with which they sustained your helpless infancy, and 
pondered by day and by night for your welfare, when you 
knew not your right hand from your left. Consider the anx- 
iety with which they have watched your youthful steps, from 
that period to the present moment. Be mindful of the prayers 
they have addressed to heaven for your welfare ; and you will 
seek to requite thek tenderness, their labours, and their cares, 
by leading an honourable and a virtuous life. 

Your Country, too, has her claims upon you. The consti- 
tution of society is kept up but by succession. Those who 
now fiU the stations of distinction, are rapidly passing off the 
stage. Another set of actors Avill soon occupy the busy scenes 
of life, and the posts of honour will be filled by the generation 
to which you belong. 

But you owe a still higher responsibility to your God. He 
will hold you accountable for the faculties he has given you, 
and the means of improvement he has afforded you. You 
may not bury your talents in the earth ; you may not squander 
them on worthless objects. To promote the glory of your God, 
and the welfare of your fellow-men, is the great object of your 
existence. This is to be effected only by a life of sobriety, 
industry, integrity, and active benevolence. By such a life 
you \viU honour the institution to which you belong ; by such 
a life you will gratify the fond anticipations of your parents, 
fulfil your duty to your country, and secure the approbation 
of your God. 



19 



" And now unto God's gracious mercy and protection we 
commit you. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord 
make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you. 
The Lord Uft up his countenance upon you, and give you 
peace, both now and evermore." 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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